Will attitudes corrected by social norms have a more powerful impact on pro-environmental behavior? Evidence from a process model moderated by self-construal

Abstract

Residents' pro-environmental behaviors are considered important for reducing carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality. However, optimizing the implementation of pro-environmental behavior need to be further studied. To this end, we placed residents' recycling behavior within a socialized situation. Explored the "Attitude-Behavior intention-Behavior" intermediary path regulated by self-construal, whether and how it can more effectively promote residents to transfer recycling behavior intention as recycling behavior after joining the influence of social norms. The results showed that after considering the influence of social norms, the transformation of residents' Habit adjustment recycling behavior (HAB) was significantly improved. Further, the masking effect of "Behavioral intention-Interpersonal facilitation recycling behavior (IFB)" in the mediation model was effectively reduced. HAB and IFB had stronger dependence on independent self-construal (IDSC) and interdependent self-construal (ITSC), respectively. In addition, when the self-construal level was low, the overall effect of the chain mediation model was stronger, highlighting the advantage of the role played by social norms.

Keywords: Attitude; Behavior; Intention gap; Pro-environmental behavior; Self-construal; Social norms.